


At least we have each other, no matter what happens

by foxyroxi



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Adam is a good father, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drug Use, F/M, First Love, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Rape/Non-con Elements, References to Drugs, Tilda is a bad mother, drinking while pregnant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:08:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25368127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxyroxi/pseuds/foxyroxi
Summary: Adam Joseph Minyard was a nice guy. He was twenty-six years old when he met Tilda Michaella Hemmick through an add in the news paper.He had never done anything wrong and yet his life turned out this bad.
Relationships: Adam Minyard/Tilda Minyard
Comments: 34
Kudos: 35





	1. Adam Minyard and Tilda Hemmick

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is high inspired because of [Anna](https://mobile.twitter.com/dogintheboiler)/[ao3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vertigo) and I's talks and ideas of what the twin's life might have looked like early on if they had had a father and wasn't separated at birth. 
> 
> The first chapter is mostly background on how Adam and Tilda met and how he became aware of her drug use.  
> It's highly self indulgent, but it doesn't come without warning. 
> 
> Tilda's doing drugs and drinking alcohol while she's pregnant with the twins.  
> She doing drugs before getting pregnant with them.  
> She will do drugs after having them. 
> 
> The tags will be updated accordingly as the fic get's updated!
> 
> Note 22/07/2020: Tags updated because of chapter 2!  
> Note 01/08/2020: chapter 1 has been update with some minor details!
> 
> Thank you to [Anna](https://mobile.twitter.com/dogintheboiler)/[ao3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vertigo) for betaing and for indulging me with papa minyard 😭🥺
> 
> You can talk to me on [twitter](https://mobile.twitter.com/foxyroxi_writes)!

Adam Joseph Minyard was a nice guy. He wasn’t all that tall, barely 5’6’’, hazel eyes, blonde hair and average build. He had never done anything wrong in his life, aside from being born to German parents. He was an only child, so his parents expected a lot of him and he did what they wanted and expected of him. He became a doctor and when he was done, he moved to the States where he was offered a job at Oakland Medical Center. His parents had been ecstatic when they received the letter because their only son was going to be a big doctor in the States, so they spent all of their savings to buy their son new clothes and nice suitcases, a nice trench coat and a leather briefcase for his work. 

He was twenty-six years old, his English was bad and yet, here he was, in a completely new land and he barely understood a word of what was said to him when he was at work. That prompted him to find a tutor in Oakland. It was the beginning of 1981, so there was still a lot of stigma against Germans around the world and people who knew English didn’t want to teach him. But God heard his prayers. And that’s when he met Tilda Michaella Hemmick. 

She had just moved to town for college, making her barely twenty years of age. She came from Columbia, South Carolina where her older brother and parents lived, to Oakland, California because she had been accepted into the literature program at Oakland University. Tilda’s brother, Luther Hemmick was a Baptist minister, doing God’s work in Mexico at the moment. She was looking for a job and she was the only one who answered Adam’s ad in the newspaper. Tilda was a sweet girl with a cute South Carolina accent and Adam wasn’t prepared for falling in love with someone six years his junior. Tilda was funny and witty. She was also smart and gorgeous and everything Adam had imagined he would ever fall in love with. 

To be honest Adam didn’t understand why Tilda had even taken the job. She could have had any other job, but this was what she settled for. She was pretty enough to become a model, but being his tutor made her unbelievably happy. With Tilda’s help, his english quickly improved, impressing even his bosses. She was tenacious when it came to teaching him, offering him rewards when he was making progress and he was determined to become better, because what man didn’t want to impress the girl he liked?

It wasn’t until Tilda invited herself over for a movie and red wine one hot summer night in 1982 that she confessed liking him back. He was twenty-eight years old by then, but she didn’t mind that he was six years her senior. She found it kind of _hot_ that he was older than her. She moved into his apartment a couple of months later and Adam had never been that happy. 

Around Christmas Luther and his wife Maria, a girl he had _“saved”_ from Mexico during his volunteer work the past summer and their parents came to California to spend some time with them. Tilda wanted to show off her smart boyfriend and the good life she had obviously scored and she wanted them to be proud of her, like they were of Luther. But Luther also had something else to say - Maria was three months pregnant and she was due in May. They didn’t know the gender yet, but they were both excited about this. Tilda was excited as well. Excited to become an aunt, excited to have a baby in the family. 

On May 23th 1984, they received a phone call announcing the new family member. It was a healthy boy and his name was Nicholas Esteban Hemmick. The next day they took the first plane to South Carolina to visit the newest addition to the family. Nicholas was a beautiful baby, with slightly curly black hair on his small head and big dark brown eyes that you could swim in. Seeing Nicholas in Tilda’s arms made him want a child for himself and it was obvious that Tilda wanted that too. But Tilda didn’t want a child until she was done with college, which Adam understood. It was the most sensible thing to do and Adam supported her decision. 

Work was good and in 1984 Adam’s promoted to Chief of Pediatrics. He loved working with kids more than he had liked anything else he had ever tried working with. That meant a better salary and a whole world of possibilities opening up for them. 1984 was also the year where Tilda finished her degree in literature. Truth to be told, she wasn’t the best student in class, with grades toeing around average, but he loved her nonetheless. She had partied a lot during the four years he had known her and frankly sometimes he was worried when she came stumbling home at three in the morning when he left for an early shift at the hospital. But he didn’t say anything because he thought it was normal in the American culture to stay out late, partying when you had a test at 8AM. 

But 1984 was also the year he first noticed that she started to slip. After graduation she changed and lost her job as a barista. She became temperamental, forgetful. She would get heat waves like she was a middle aged woman. She would scream and yell until one day it was over and she was back to her own happy self. 

This wasn't healthy and it broke him. He spent his night shifts talking to colleagues about what he could do to help Tilda with whatever she was facing. They told him it was most likely drugs, and that depending on how far gone she was, it would either be like walking through hell or well… it would be like walking through hell no matter what. He came home early that morning, finding Tilda passed out on the couch with a bag of white powder on the coffee table. He found a bottle of prescription painkillers in her bag and when he went into the kitchen, he found a syringe. He cried, because he realized then just how deep Tilda had fallen and he didn’t even see it, maybe he gave her too little of his time, maybe he poured it all on work and abandoned the woman whom he swore to love. 

In 1985 they bought their first house, despite Tilda not being able to keep a job and still doing drugs behind his back when she thought he wouldn’t see and asking for forgiveness every time she was caught red handed. Sometimes, Tilda seemed to want to get off the drugs, she even managed to check herself into a rehab facility center to get the help to get clean. She cried a lot when he dropped her off at the center. But he told her: “ _This is for our future baby. This is for us and for you. For our family._ ” and Tilda went inside without looking back at Adam. And it was somewhat successful. When she came home at Christmas, Adam could tell she was struggling to stay away from drugs and her friends, but she managed to do it with a little help and a lot more attention coming from him. She got a job at a local library and everything seemed to be on track for a better life. 

1986 was a tough year for them. In May Tilda announced that she was pregnant. It was Nicky’s third birthday and they had gone to South Carolina to celebrate him. Nicky was a happy child and he was excited for every piece of toy he got. She hadn’t said anything before they were gathered and Nicky had been put to bed. She sat them all down before she sat down next to Adam and took his hand and said: _“I’m pregnant.”_ Adam’s jaw dropped. They hadn’t tried to get pregnant, at least not actively. Adam wasn’t sure it was such a good idea to have a child when she was still struggling, but she had a fire in her eyes she hadn’t had before. She wanted this and she wanted it bad, and maybe this would be the final push for her to stay afloat. 

When they returned home to Oakland, Adam got Tilda the prettiest princess cut diamond ring. He asked her to marry him on their weekly date night. Tilda threw herself at him, crying as she whispered _yes yes yes_. Mid June her family flew in from South Carolina and Adam’s mother and father flew in from Stuttgart, Germany. His parents weren't impressed. They were disappointed that they hadn't even met Tilda before the wedding, but they were even more disappointed in the fact that Tilda was pregnant with twins. They left almost immediately after the wedding and Adam had never been more disappointed in his parents than when they took one look at Tilda and shook their heads with disapproval. Adam had never been one to cry, but his parents’ disapproval broke him that night. 

But they were now a family and Adam loved Tilda more than anything. He would do anything for her and he would do anything for their babies. Despite being married, Tilda continued to struggle, and it became clearer as time went on. He wasn’t sure just how bad Tilda wanted it. Wanted their babies. Wanted to be married to him. He wanted to believe in her and in her abilities to be a good mother.

Adam was right to doubt Tilda.

He came home early on a hot July night and found his house filled with people. His driveway was filled with cars he had never seen before. His house was filled with people. Drunk people, high people, people throwing up in the kitchen, people having sex on the staircase to the first floor. He didn’t want to think about what was going on on the first floor. He found Tilda in the backyard with a drink in hand, obviously high from how she swayed. She paled at the sight of Adam and realized just how screwed she was. In the matter of an hour he had the house cleared from people. Tilda was in the kitchen now, sitting on a chair, still swaying from side to side, a bucket in front of her. 

He was disappointed, because she was doing so well, when in reality she hadn’t been doing well at all. He helped Tilda to bed and _hoped_ that she hadn't done any harm to the babies she was carrying. 

When she was somewhat sober in the morning, she agreed with tears in her eyes to check in to rehab once more. She knew she had done wrong and that the alcohol and the drugs could have hurt the babies. He found a new rehab facility for Tilda, one that was further away from home. One that looked more promising than the first one. Adam took some time off from work so he could keep an eye on his wife. 

Tilda needed supervision. Supervision he couldn’t give her because he had a job to take care of. If he hadn’t been home she would have already been out the door looking for drugs. And Adam wasn’t stupid enough to let her hurt his children inside of her. He helped her pack her bags, he took her shopping for whatever she needed before he drove out of Oakland to San Jose for Valley House Rehabilitation Center. He checked her in and helped her set up her room. He promised to visit her as often as he could. He would come and pick her up for her doctor's appointments. He left at the rehabilitation center, taking one last glance at the Valley House Rehabilitation Center and sent a prayer up to the skies before he drove home to Oakland. 

Adam divided his free time between driving to San Jose to be with Tilda and turning the guest room into a nursery for the babies. 

When Adam got a call during a night shift that Tilda had gone into labor, he dropped everything in his hands and drove to El Camino Hospital Mountain View where Tilda had been taken to. She looked sick. She was pale and sweating and she was in _pain_. The doctors didn't want to give her anything because she had been addicted to prescription painkillers. It was a long and painful birth, but at 5:51AM they were parents to a pair of boy twins. The first boy came at 5:43AM and the second at 5:50AM. They were seven minutes apart, but they were both equally beautiful and stunning. The doctors were worried because of how small they were - smaller in height and weight, but still perfect. 

They had blonde, almost white hair sticking in every direction, long black eyelashes and pink skin every newborn baby had. They named the eldest boy Aaron Michael Minyard and the younger Andrew Joseph Minyard. 

They had been born two weeks early, and had to spend a couple of days in an incubator to make sure their lungs were fully developed before they were ready to head home to Oakland. While they were in the hospital, Adam had to go out and buy two car seats for the twins because he hadn’t gotten around to do that before he got the call.

They spent a week in the hospital before Tilda had to go back to the Valley House Rehabilitation Center, leaving Adam alone with the babies. It was hard for him to be alone with the twins. He had to bring them to work because the hospital didn’t give him time off to care for his newborn twins or his wife. But the nurses loved them and he knew Aaron and Andrew were in good hands with his staff. They were also easy kids: they rarely fussed, then napped in the same carrier. Aaron was much more outgoing, while Andrew was more timid. If Andrew whined or fussed, Aaron would reach out for his brother and hold his hand. Andrew was a cuddler. He could already roll over and seek out Aaron in the crib they were sharing. 

He took them to San Jose to visit Tilda whenever he had time. He wanted them to have a good relationship with Tilda and she was always excited when he rolled in with the twin-sized stroller. She was good with the kids and they smiled when she held them, despite the horrible things she had put them through in utero. But it was almost like she didn’t know what to do with them. She had no idea how to change them or to calm them down. She made the mistake of picking up Andrew once he was being a little fussy, and that resulted in Andrew breaking into a full-out wail. A wail that triggered Aaron and he began to cry as well. Adam had told her to put Andrew down again and watch them. She did it and watched as Aaron reached for his brother to calm him down. After that she didn’t dare to pick any one of them.

When Tilda came home after New Years eve, her parents, Luther, Maria and Nicky came to see the twins and how Tilda was doing. Nicky was immediately smitten with his cousins. He poked their chubby cheeks and let them hold onto his fingers. His big brown eyes shone with happiness from finally having not one, but two cousins he could play with and learn how to get into trouble. He leaned back and kissed their tiny noses before he ran back to his mother. Adam loved how good Nicky was with Aaron and Andrew. He was concerned with how Tilda seemed to ignore the kids. She didn’t seem like she was interested in them whatsoever. 

His own parents didn’t even want to see their grandchildren after they had been born. He had sent them letters with pictures and plane tickets, so they had the opportunity to meet Aaron and Andrew. 

Tilda’s interest in the kids didn’t grow. He took them to work while they were small and when they reached the age of one, they got a spot in a daycare not far from home, he took them there instead of taking them to work. More often than not he got a call from the daycare, saying that Tilda hadn’t shown up to pick up the twins and Adam had to rush out of work to pick them up from daycare. It didn’t look good. His boss was beginning to demand an explanation for why Tilda wasn’t pulling her weight with the twins. He didn’t know what to say besides that he didn’t know what was going with her, except that he knew. She had never wanted kids, it was only something she thought she wanted. That Adam only wanted to stay with her if they had kids, when Adam would have stayed no matter what. Kids or not. 

It only went downhill from there. 

Adam was fired from his job, which meant whatever he had saved up was being spent on rent, food and clothes and whatever necessities the twins needed. Being fired also meant that he was home all the time, which meant Tilda was cranky from when she woke up until Adam took the twins for a walk for their nap. He knew something was wrong from how she was reacting, but he was tired from looking for a job that paid enough for them to keep their house, enough for the twins to keep their daycare spot, but sadly, it was one of the first things to be cut when Adam didn’t find a job fast enough. He found a job at a private practice in San Jose that gave him better working hours, but he made nowhere near enough for them to keep their house. He sold their house and rented a 3-bedroom apartment in San Jose and things seemed to get better. Aaron and Andrew were thriving as long as they were together, they had clothes and they were happy. 

Tilda seemed to get better with move, but it wouldn’t be the first time Adam was wrong. 


	2. Get away from them

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He came home early from a night shift one April morning in 1994, there was a car parked in the driveway he didn’t recognize and a man came out of the house looking smug. He was fixing his fly and Adam thought he had just caught his wife cheating on him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is high inspired because of [Anna](https://mobile.twitter.com/dogintheboiler)/[ao3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vertigo) and I's talks and ideas of what the twin's life might have looked like early on if they had had a father and wasn't separated at birth. 
> 
> I kindly ask you NOT to read this chapter if you are sensitive to child abuse, Aaron getting high and Andrew being abused. 
> 
> This chapter hurt more than the first chapter did, but now that everything's over, we can move on to happier times!
> 
> Tags have been updated because of this chapter! 
> 
> Please read with caution!
> 
> Thank you to [Anna](https://mobile.twitter.com/dogintheboiler)/[ao3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vertigo) for betaing and for indulging me with papa minyard 😭🥺
> 
> You can talk to me on [twitter](https://mobile.twitter.com/foxyroxi_writes)!

The move from Oakland to San Jose changed something. Tilda came out of her shell and got a job at a local elementary school as a part time english teacher and part time librarian. She seemed to want to take part in the twins' upbringing, but it was hard for her. She couldn't figure out how to handle them or how to do simple household chores. Adam did the cleaning and cooking and grocery shopping because he had asked Tilda to do it once, he had even written a list for her, there wasn’t much that could go wrong, but she didn’t buy half of the essential they needed because she decided feeding two year olds cookies for breakfast, lunch and dinner was a good idea. But as long as Adam was home and did the chores, it went alright. 

When the twins were three years old, he landed a job as a pediatric surgeon at Good Samaritan Hospital, which meant working unpredictable hours once again. Whenever he left home for a night shift or an evening shift, he left Aaron and Andrew alone with Tilda. When he had evening shifts, all she had to do was to feed the twins and put them to bed. He made sure there were leftovers in the fridge so Tilda only had to heat it up in the microwave and make sure their pyjamas' was laid out on their beds. Sometimes he had to call home to check on things, or else he would have jumped out of his own skin with worry. 

Aaron was the more adventures of the twins. He climbed trees, rocks, he even climbed a bookshelf once because Andrew wanted to read a book on the top shelf. Adam remembered when he walked into the twin's bedroom and found Aaron hanging off from the top shelf. He had never ran that fast to catch him from falling down on top of Andrew. It was also the first time he scolded Aaron. 

But of course Aaron would do it again a week later. Only this time he ended in the hospital needing three stitches on his forehead after falling down. Andrew didn’t stop crying, because it was his fault for asking for a book on the top shelf. He had to wonder where Tilda was when this happened. 

Andrew was the quiet one of the two. He liked to read and at the age of four he was an avid reader, constantly looking for new challenges. He often sat next to Aaron reading out loud for him. And when Adam was home, he liked to sit next to his father and read the newspaper with him. When Adam brought home a Super Nintendo Entertainment System for the twin's fifth birthday in 1991, Andrew sat next to Aaron as he played  _ The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past _ or  _ Donkey Kong Country _ .

While the twins continued to thrive, Tilda did not. When Tilda was laid off from her job at the elementary school, things started to go wrong once more. She would leave the kids home alone at night. Adam had found them both crying locked in their bedroom a couple of times. He didn’t know why Tilda was laid off from her job, all he knew was that Tilda disappeared a month after. He suspected she had gone back to Oakland to her friends to get high, to forget about the world and her responsibility towards Aaron and Andrew, but he couldn’t file a missings persons report because Tilda was a grown woman. 

Tilda went missing for a month before she came home and Adam wished she had stayed away. Her eyes were glassy, her skin gray, her hair was an unwashed mess and she smelled like the bottom of a trash can. She looked like a mess and even the twins could tell something was wrong with their mother, even if they didn’t call her mom all that often. Adam never let the twins alone with their mother at that point. He didn’t know if she had drugs lying around the house, he suspected she had and he didn’t want the twins to get their hands on them. He had one of the elderly women in the building babysit the twins when he was on evening shifts and night shifts. Thankfully that was mostly during the weekends, but it was still hard, when you have to work a hundred hours a week and still worry about your wife and kids. 

Tilda began to throw parties when the twins and Adam weren't home and Adam knew what was going on in his apartment, what was happening. At Christmas they were kicked out of their apartment. The residents of the building had filed numerous complaints about Tilda's parties. They packed up their essentials and Adam managed to get the landlord to agree to keep their furniture until they had found a new place. They moved into a motel for the night, and one night turned into two weeks. Two weeks of leaving Aaron and Andrew alone with Tilda in a dingy motel. It broke him, but he couldn’t bring them to work more often. 

Adam found them a small house in a somewhat safe neighbourhood. It wasn’t like their apartment or their house in Oakland, but it was decent in size and shape. He was more worried about Tilda and her addiction to drugs than about the twins. They were good boys and they looked out for each other. They could ride bikes and they could run for help if something happened. Their neighbours were nice people and they said that Aaron and Andrew were always welcome. 

Adam didn’t miss the way the husband looked at the twins, and he promised himself that they would never go over there. 

At their sixth birthday on November 4th, 1992, Adam got them their own bikes. They were both ecstatic and they took riding their bikes a lot. Adam sent them grocery shopping at the store down the road for simple things like cookies or milk or toilet paper. He let them drive to school and to their friends houses. Until one day after New Years where Andrew wouldn’t use his, saying he would rather walk to school. Adam thought that maybe the bike had broken and that Andrew was afraid to tell him. Maybe he was being bullied because his bike was purple and not some other boyish color like Aaron’s. Maybe he had fallen off and didn’t want to seem like a wuss. 

He kissed them goodbye and it was one of the last times they allowed him to do so. 

After that, the twins slowly disintegrated. Andrew became more introverted and Aaron became more distant. 

Andrew didn’t read the newspaper with him anymore. He didn’t ask for new books or that specific flavor of ice cream he had liked since forever. He spoke less and less and soon only flinched when he was addressed. He rushed to school in the mornings. He rarely initiated contact with Adam and he rarely spoke up when he didn’t like something. 

Aaron stopped climbing the bookshelf for Andrew. He stopped climbing trees and rocks and he stopped taking his bike to school. He still stayed close to Andrew, being the only one Andrew would allow close to him. He was more tired and more lazy. He had fallen asleep one time in class and they had called Adam to ask what was wrong with Aaron. 

He knew his children and something was wrong. 

When he came home early from a night shift one April morning in 1994, there was a car parked in the driveway he didn’t recognize and a man came out of the house looking smug. He was fixing his fly and Adam thought he had just caught his wife cheating on him. He parked in the front of the mailbox on the street before he jumped out of the car, almost running the man down on his way to the front door. 

“‘ey! Watch it man!”

Adam almost turned around and gave him a right hook, but instead he tore the front door open and stepped into the eerily quiet house. He could feel his pulse pick up as he looked around the house. It was a mess. Beer bottles, tequila bottles scattered around the living room floor. The house reeked of weed and sweat. He looked at the clock and saw that it wasn’t time for the kids to be up yet. He didn’t want to wake them up just yet, but he couldn’t let them stay in this house a second longer. He went to the twin’s bedroom down the hall from his and Tilda’s. He reached for the handle when he heard a small, broken voice whisper beyond the door. 

“ _ Please… Stop… Please… No! Don’t touch h--!” _

The sound of skin hitting skin echoed throughout the house, followed by a quiet cry. 

The voice of the whisper and the cry belonged to Andrew. His timid and usually affectionate son. His son, who liked to sit on his lap and read the newspaper with him. His son who had his brother climbing bookshelves for books he could read. He tore the door open and wasn’t prepared for the sight that met him. 

The room was dark except for the light that came in through the blinds. Their usually clean room was a mess. On one bed was Aaron, completely passed out and completely oblivious to what was happening across from him.His breathing was shallow, almost too shallow. On the other bed… Was a grown man with his pants around his knees, towering over Andrew. Andrew, who was naked, shaking and doing his best to fight back, but his best wasn’t good enough to fight off a full grown man. Adam could already see the bruises forming around Andrew’s ankles, his calves and knees. 

Adam saw red. 

“Get away from my son!” He yelled, before he grabbed the man by the shoulders and pulled him away from Andrew, who scrambled off the bed and hid on Aaron’s bed. 

“What the fuck man!?” the stranger said, but the man wasn’t a stranger. It was their neighbour. Adam gritted his teeth before he smashed his fist into the man’s nose, making his double over in pain. He elbowed him in the neck, forcing him to the ground where he kicked him, until he begged for mercy. He didn’t want to show that man mercy. He had hurt his child beyond what was imaginable and Adam wanted to see blood. 

“ _ Adam! _ ” Tilda gasped from down the hall. They had ended up in the hallway, Adam on top of their neighbour. 

“Call the fucking cops Tilda!” Adam snarled while he had his knee pressed into the man’s back. He had never been angrier in his life and it was the first time Tilda did what he told her to. But he couldn’t wait for the police. The man was barely moving from his spot on the floor and Adam could get to him if he tried to get away. He pulled his jacket off as he walked over to Aaron’s bed, before he kneeled down so he was at level with his son. He could see how Andrew’s shoulders tensed the closer Adam got to the bed. 

“Andrew… It’s dad. I’m not going to hurt you, okay? The bad man’s gone. He can’t, he  _ won’t _ hurt you again. I’m going to put this around you, okay?” he said and held out the jacket. He waited until Andrew nodded to put the jacket around his shoulders. Andrew grabbed the jacket and pulled it closer around him, hiding his naked body. “Now I’m going to check on Aaron. I’m going to help him, okay?” he could feel the tears press behind his eyes but he couldn’t cry in front of Andrew. Andrew nodded and Adam checked Aaron’s pulse, his breath. It was too slow and Adam couldn’t wait for the police to get their asses into gear. He walked over to the twins’ closets, grabbing their bags from there. He packed their clothes, taking out some boxers, sweatpants and a hoodie for Andrew. 

“Andrew,” he said, turning to his son who was curled up in his jacket behind Aaron. “Honey, come here. You need to get dressed. I have to get you out of here.” He kneeled down on the floor to look non threatening to Andrew. 

Andrew looked at him like he was going to hurt him if he walked over to him. 

“I promise you Andrew. No one will ever hurt you again, okay? No one. Daddy will protect you. But we have to go. We have to help Aaron, okay?” Tears streamed down his cheeks now, and that seemed to tip the scale. He got off the bed and with careful steps made his way over to his father. Adam dressed Andrew as carefully as possible, but it was hard because all he wanted was to pull Andrew close and protect him forever. When he was done dressing Andrew, Andrew did something unexpected. He wrapped his small arms around Adam’s neck and held onto his father. 

“Hug me daddy,” Andrew whispered into Adam’s neck. 

Adam sobbed as he wrapped his arms around Andrew's back and pulled him closer to him. "I'm so sorry Andrew. I'm so terribly sorry." He slowly pulled back and looked at Andrew. “I love you… so much Andrew. But you have to help me, okay?” Andrew nodded and Adam smiled. “Good. Pack your toys and books. I’ll carry Aaron to the car and then we’ll go to the hospital.”

“Okay,” Andrew said carefully and began to pack up their toys. 

Adam walked over to Aaron and carefully scooped his son up. Aaron was starting to look a bit more alive, but his pulse was still too slow. He swaddled him in his blanket, then carried him out to the car and situated him in the back of the car. The police was just showing up now. Adam walked in and grabbed the bags of clothes and toys and put them in the trunk of the car, before he went back for Andrew and the rest of the bags. 

“Honey, take your teddies yeah? I’ll buy you new pillows and a blanket,” he said as he watched Andrew take his duck plush and Aaron’s sloth plush. He herded him off to the car. He made sure Andrew was comfortable before he went to pack his own bags, grab the albums of the kids, and his books from the bookshelf in the living room and walk to the police, because he wasn’t letting them close to Andrew or Aaron. 

The police drove Tilda and the neighbour away. They had found a pile of money inside of Tilda’s underwear drawer. She had likely been selling Andrew to be able to keep her addiction to drugs and by Aaron’s state, she had liked drugged him to keep from making a fuss about what was happening to Andrew. He handed the keys to the house to the police, left his wedding ring on the dining table and got the hell out of there without looking back. 

He took the twins to the hospital. It was hard to get Andrew inside the place, looking like he did. He had to promise not to leave his side and Adam of course promised Andrew that, how could he not? He picked Aaron up, then Andrew and was thankful that the twins didn’t weigh much. He carried them inside and told them how he had found Aaron and that they needed to run a toxicology screen and send it to the police. The staff knew him because he worked there, so they took good care of Aaron. 

Andrew was a smart kid. He had always been. And Adam knew they needed to do a rape kit on Andrew, but he couldn’t force him. He sat them down on a bed and explained what they needed to do if they wanted to report about what had happened and keep the bad man away. Andrew didn’t want to do anything and it took a lot of promising for him to agree. Adam never left Andrew’s side and when everything was done, Adam helped him shower as much as Andrew would allow him to, before they got situated in the same room as Aaron. The twins slept in the same bed with their teddies, allowing Adam some time to think and wonder. One of the nurses came up to him and smiled. 

“What a morning huh?”

“Yeah,” Adam sighed bitterly, “The fucking worst.”

“Adam… If you ever need someone to talk to, I went to school with this one girl. She’s amazing and She’s amazing with kids. The kids might need someone to talk to. Someone who’s not their father. I know that South Carolina is far away, but she’s worth it.”

“Their cousin lives in South Carolina. I was heading that way anyways.”

“Good,” she said and handed him the card, then pressed a kiss to his head, before she left him. He looked at the card in his hand, turning it around to look at the name. 

_ Betsy Jo Dobson. _

When the twins were released the next day, he went to the courthouse and filed for a divorce and full custody of the twins. He took them to a motel close to work. He wasn’t letting them out of sight until they got the hell out of San Jose. 

Getting the custody of Aaron and Andrew took three months. Tilda was more than happy to sign off her parental rights to the twins and the divorce took six. After that, he was out of California and he was never going back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for hurting the twins 😭😭😭
> 
> Thank you for all the comments and the kudos 🥺
> 
> You can talk to me on [twitter](https://mobile.twitter.com/foxyroxi_writes)!


	3. Betsy Dobson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The drive to South Carolina took thirty-nine hours. Adam didn’t care how long it took, all he cared about was getting his sons out of California as soon as possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is highly inspired because of [Anna](https://mobile.twitter.com/dogintheboiler)/[ao3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vertigo) and I's talks and ideas of what the twin's life might have looked like early on if they had had a father and wasn't separated at birth. 
> 
> Road trip! Adam takes the twins all kinds of places and we meet Bee!!
> 
> Thank you to [Anna](https://mobile.twitter.com/dogintheboiler)/[ao3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vertigo) for betaing and for indulging me with papa minyard 😭🥺
> 
> You can talk to me on [twitter](https://mobile.twitter.com/foxyroxi_writes)!

The drive to South Carolina took thirty-nine hours. Adam didn’t care how long it took, all he cared about was getting his sons out of California as soon as possible. They had the car packed, he had quit his job at the hospital. His colleagues were sad to see him go, but they also understood where he came from. The twins had bad memories of San Jose and Adam wanted to put as much distance between himself and California. The twins seemed to have settled well in the back seat of the car. He had sold the old car and bought a newer one. A bigger one that could hold all of their stuff. There was more space for Aaron and Andrew, and he had stuffed their suitcases in the spaces underneath their feet, bought a single top mattress to serve as a bed for when the twins got tired and needed to nap while he drove. 

Their first stop was in Ash Fork, Arizona. They had been on the road for almost eleven hours and Adam needed to stretch his legs and the boys were getting restless. There was an Inn nearby and Adam decided they could stay in for the night. It wasn’t the best of places, but it would have to do for now. It was also pretty late and the boys needed a shower. They also needed a proper meal instead of the snacks he had packed. Once they had a room at the Ash Fork Inn, Adam went ahead and found them a place to eat what the boys wanted to eat. They had dinner at Piccadilly Pizza & Subs not far from the Inn. There was a small museum behind the Inn and Adam decided to take them there after breakfast in the morning. 

It was a small museum about the old highway Route 66 and both boys followed the lady around, giving Adam a break. Andrew was very fascinated with the old cars, and he even got to try and sit in one of them. Adam pulled out his old camera and snapped a couple of pictures of the boys. There was a tiny smile on his face and Adam was glad Andrew found some happiness in cars. Aaron was completely smitten with the layout of the small old city diorama. The lady gave the boys a  _ Route 66 Passports _ about roadside attractions while cruising along the old original highway. Adam brought the boys a small each a small figure of a car with the sign ‘ _ Welcome to Route 66 _ ’. He brought them two t-shirts as well, then they were on their way. 

While cruising the old highway, Aaron said he wanted to see the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon was an hour and a half ride from Ash Fork but Adam couldn’t say no to them. This was a family trip, and they didn’t need to rush it. They stayed there for almost a week, because the boys enjoyed it so much. It was their first trip as a family and he wanted to spoil them. And it seemed it to bring Andrew out of the shell he had been buried in ever since he was six and to take Aaron’s mind away from the fact he had liked being high. 

Grand Canyon was also the place where Andrew learned he was scared of heights. 

Every day, they went to a new overlook. They went to Yavapai Geological Museum. They walked on the Trail of Time and a couple of other trails he forgot the names of because he was too busy taking pictures and chasing the twins. He bought them souvenirs in forms of t-shirts and posters to hang in their bedrooms. After Grand Canyon, they drove east and out of Arizona. Adam had packed lots of snacks and drinks for the boys. After six hours on the road, they reached Albuquerque and the twins said they needed to pee. He pulled in at a rest stop and helped the boys out of the car and took them to the diner at the rest stop. They peed, got something to eat, and then they drove for another seven hours until they reached Oklahoma City. They ate a quick dinner at McDonald’s because he didn’t want to fight the twins after thirteen hours on the road. He found a decent hotel and got the boys tucked in. He would shower them in the morning. Adam showered himself before he went to bed. 

He slept until the twins jumped on him, ready for a new day. The twins could shower themselves, but he still helped them wash their hair or else they wouldn’t be able to rinse out the soap properly. He always started with Aaron so Andrew could see that he wouldn’t hurt him. Andrew still woke up screaming and crying sometimes, and he couldn’t help him because Andrew wouldn’t let him touch him. It had happened last night, and they spent the day in their hotel room, watching Disney movies. They only left for food and Adam treated them McDonald’s again for dinner. 

The next day Andrew was in a much better mood so Adam took them to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. The boys were running around, playing cowboys because Adam had bought them tiny hats in the gift shop. It was nice to see them play and be kids and forget about their past. They stayed there for the day, looking at every exhibition that they had, before Adam took them to an Italian restaurant for pizza. They spent another night in the hotel, before they left Oklahoma City for a new adventure. 

Adam drove seven hours to Memphis, Tennessee. They found a good hotel and a good place to eat dinner. Adam liked Elvis, and he had gotten them tickets for a tour at Graceland in a couple of days, and he thought it would be good for the twins to see something else than old cars and cowboys. And as Adam had predicted, the twins loved it. They were both very mindful and kept close to their father. And for the first time, Andrew let Adam carry him. It almost made him cry because he thought Andrew had been hurt for good. 

But Andrew was slowly opening up to Adam, and for that Adam was grateful. 

During their two-week road trip Adam followed Tilda’s case. It was a horrifying case about child abuse, rape and drugs. A case about a mother who didn’t care and a father who tried too hard. Adam hadn’t given any interviews to the press before leaving because he was protecting the twins and their privacy. He hoped Tilda got the worst possible sentence and that all the men who had hurt the twins would rot in hell. He only watched the news during the night when the twins were asleep. They didn’t ask about their mother because they knew she had hurt them, when she was supposed to love them and protect them. 

They stayed in Memphis a few days before they were on their way to Columbia, South Carolina. Adam had called a few real estate agents and found a partly furnished house close to a good school district and Prisma Health Richland Hospital where he had a job interview a week later. He also had an appointment with Betsy Dobson because he needed to talk about this whole experience with a professional. They arrived at the house on a Thursday afternoon. The twins looked at the house with wide eyes. 

“Dad, are we going to live here?” Aaron asked as he stared out the window, almost pressing his face against it to get a closer look at the house. It was a legit question from his son. 

“Yes. We are,” Adam said and got out of the car. He opened the door for Aaron and Andrew and went over to the house. He found the key underneath the flower pot and the rest lying on the kitchen counter with a note from the real estate agent. The twins explored the house and they both came running after a couple of minutes. 

“Daddy!” Andrew said and Adam wanted to cry from hearing the happiness in his son’s voice. He turned and looked down at them. 

“Yes honey?”

“There’s a purple room!”

“And a blue room!”

“I know Andrew. They are for you and Aaron.” He kneeled down in front of them. He gently took one of their hands each and held them in his own. “The purple room is for you Andrew,” Andrew’s eyes sparkled when he said that, “And the blue room is for Aaron. And my room is just down the hall from yours so I’ll never be far away.”

Andrew hugged him. It caught Adam off guard but he wrapped his arm around Andrew and then pulled Aaron into the hug as well. He loved hugging his children and it had been a long time since they had allowed him to hug them like this. He kisses their foreheads and let them show him their rooms, before they went out for lunch. 

Settling into their new life was fairly easy. Andrew still had nightmares and Aaron was feeling restless because of the damage the drugs had done to him. Those nights he carried Andrew while he walked around with Aaron. They said hello to their neighbours, pet friendly dogs and cats and played on the playground near the school.

"Dad?" Aaron asked one night they were out, this time in their small backyard. He had bought them a swing set the day after they had moved to South Carolina. 

"Yes Aaron?"

"Will people always hurt us?" He asked. Andrew was asleep on the couch so Adam took the opportunity to pull Aaron into his lap. He sat so he could look at Aaron properly. He carefully rubbed his back, ran his fingers through his blonde hair, looked into his hazel eyes. "Will they?"

"No. They won't. I won’t let them. No more bad people. No one will ever hurt you again. Daddy promises you that. No one will ever hurt you. No one will ever hurt Andrew."

Aaron stared, not sure if he could believe his father. They sat in silence for a minute before Aaron decided to trust him. Aaron wrapped his arms around his neck. He smiled and held Aaron close until he fell asleep. Adam carried him into his bedroom and put him on the bed, then picked Andrew up from the couch and carried him into his bed as well. He tucked them in and went to enjoy a beer while the kids slept. 

His interview arrived sooner than expected. It took around two days before the kids felt comfortable in school. They were in the same class and Adam made sure Andrew wore something purple and Aaron something blue so the teachers and students could tell them apart. Adam could tell them apart because Andrew had more freckles on his nose, and Aaron had freckles spreading down his neck. His interview was at nine and his appointment with Betsy was at ten. His interview went well and he had just enough time to get Betsy’s office at Reddin Medical Center. It was close to Palmetto State University and the place looked like a decent place to send the kids off to college when the time came. Reddin Medical Center was easy to navigate through and he didn’t have to wait long until a Certified Nurse Assistant came and picked him up and showed him to Betsy’s room. 

He didn’t exactly know what Betsy was supposed to look like. He had imagined a white girl with blonde hair and glasses and he was sorely mistaken when he saw her standing behind her desk. 

She was short, probably five feet even. Her hair was cut into a short bob that reached her chin. Her hair was pale brown. Her skin was tan, she was curvaceous and had laugh lines on her face and she wore narrow rimmed glasses. She wore a black dress under her white coat and she was the most beautiful woman Adam had ever seen. 

“Adam?” she said and he nodded. 

“Come in. My name is Betsy Dobson, but you can call me Bee, Betsy, Dr Dobson, whatever you’re comfortable with.”

“Thanks,” Adam said as he closed the door behind and sat down. 

“Hot chocolate?”

“What? Uh, um, no. Thank you. I’ll manage.”

Betsy smiled and Adam didn’t think it would be possible for him to meet a woman that was as beautiful as Betsy was. 

Adam was screwed. 

“So Adam. Tell me why you’re here,” Betsy said and Adam talked. 

He talked about Tilda and about his life with her. He talked about the twins and how they had been abused by their mother. How Andrew had been raped for a year and a half and how Aaron had been hooked on painkillers at the age of six. He told her everything and it felt so good to tell everything to someone who could help him deal with it. And Betsy was amazing. She gave him tools to work with at home. She came to their house to talk to Aaron and Andrew, and while she didn’t normally do that, she bent her rules for the sake of the twins’ comfort. She talked to them about it and she gave  _ them _ tools to make it easier for them to explain what they were feeling. She was nothing short of amazing and Adam wasn’t sure if he could live without her in his life. 

Adam seeing Betsy stretched out close to six months. She had been amazing through the whole process, especially when Tilda and the men got their sentences. Betsy had a session with the twins and Adam had asked her to stay. It was the day Tilda got her sentence. She got twenty years and the men who raped Andrew got fifteen. The drug dealer got ten years and Adam felt like he was going to be sick. It wasn’t enough. He needed them to be punished harder. But he got full custody of the kids and Tilda couldn’t do anything about it. Their address was hidden, their phone number hidden. 

“Adam? Adam calm down,” Betsy said when she saw him crumbling. He was having a panic attack, because what if he couldn’t protect the kids anymore? What if these creeps came back to haunt them? “Adam. Sweetie. Look at me.” He did. Betsy was wearing a yellow headband, a white dress and a blue cardigan. Her eyes were kind and her smile soft. “Calm down. I’m here,” she said and held his hand. Holding his hand didn’t do anything good, but he appreciated the gesture. She took deep breaths and Adam imitated her breathing. 

“Good. That’s good Adam.” Betsy smiled and Adam had the urge to lean in and kiss her. Would it be appropriate to kiss your psychiatrist after having a panic attack? It probably would. “You know… Today marks the last day of our journey.”

Adam stared at her. He knew that. He had been counting down the day until he could ask her out. 

“Will you have dinner with me and the twins, Betsy?”

Betsy smiled wider than ever before. 

“I would love to, Adam.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the comments and the kudos 🥺
> 
> You can talk to me on [twitter](https://mobile.twitter.com/foxyroxi_writes)!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry for hurting the twins 😭😭😭
> 
> And thank you for reading this!
> 
> You can talk to me on [twitter](https://mobile.twitter.com/foxyroxi_writes)!


End file.
